into the hall. Hamlet closed the door for me and followed.
When we were on the stairs, I stopped. “I know where the office is, Hamlet.”
“They didn’t actually call for you.”
I hesitated and started to get mad. “I have to go back to class,” I said. I had never gotten in trouble and didn’t want to start.
He caught me by the arm and said, “Ophelia, we should talk.”
I didn’t walk away, but I didn’t speak.
“I…” he began. “I never thought much about you in that way. You’re adorable and have a great body and—” He stopped when I crossed my arms around my middle. “This is coming out wrong. You’re younger and we’ve always just been friends, you know?”
I did. And though I knew he would be right to say things shouldn’t change, I braced myself because it was gonna suck having him tell me anyway.
“But,” he said. A magical word. “I… Oh, hell.” He stepped forward and pulled me close. My legs went weak as his tongue slipped into my mouth and he wove his fingers into my hair.
I stepped back. “This is such a bad idea,” I said, barely able to stand. “We are friends, and this could be a disaster.” He seemed as dazed as I felt, so I had the chance to continue. “When was the last time you dated someone for more than a month?”
The question snapped him to alertness. “Well—” he began, looking like he had evidence to the contrary, and then started to laugh when he realized he didn’t. “Ophelia, most girls are interested in dating a ‘prince’ and are not especially interested in me, which gets old fast, or they’re classmates who might see the difference, but once I spend more than a few minutes alone with them, I realize they’re really dull.”
I smiled. He had complained about this problem before.
“But you…” he said. “I know you don’t want me because of what I am—”
“I don’t?” I asked, batting my eyelashes.
His smile matched mine. “And I know you’re not dull.” We stood in silence. “I’m going away in less than a year, and who knows what will happen then? But after I kissed you the other night, it was weird because, well, I suddenly couldn’t think of spending the rest of my time home without you. And not the way things were before, but like this.” He stepped close again and planted a kiss on me that was so intense that neither of us noticed Mr. Johnson, the assistant principal, walk up behind us.
He cleared his throat. “Hamlet, this is not—” I leaped back in shock, and he said, “Oh. Ophelia. I didn’t realize—” Unexpectedly, he looked embarrassed. Then he went back to stern professionalism. “Why are you both not in class?”
Red-faced, I looked down and mumbled that I was just going. Hamlet ambled a few paces behind me and when I reached for the door to Ms. Stone’s room, he said quietly, “We’re not making a mistake. Don’t you see we were meant for each other? How can this bring us anything but happiness?”
I knew it was naive. I just didn’t realize how complicated it would become.
Almost two years later, when I was waiting for Hamlet to leave the reception of his father’s funeral, the memory was oddly comforting and sweetly distracting. I shivered, and Horatio threw an arm around me, making me glad that kiss between us had been so mutually unappealing, because Horatio was the best friend I ever had.
Hamlet came banging through the stairwell door, ripping at his tie. “Get this thing off of me,” he called out, then ran toward us and threw the tie over the edge.
“Hamlet!” I cried out.
“Someone can sell it on eBay.” He shook hands with Horatio, and we all moved to the patio furniture by the roses.
“How bad was it?” I asked as we settled on a pair of lounge chairs. Lying next to him, I felt warmer already.
“Hell. All those people talking to me like I could help their futures. And most of them didn’t know my father at all. Just met him during handshaking photo ops.” Horatio and I nodded. I shivered, and Hamlet put his arms tighter around me. “Actually,” he said to me, “your dad was the coolest.” “Coolest” and my dad were never before and never since mentioned in the same sentence, as much as I loved him, so this took me by surprise.
“He told me things about my dad I didn’t even know and gave me a